


Define Partner

by SirenAlpha



Series: Remake: Zack Lives AU [2]
Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24209320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirenAlpha/pseuds/SirenAlpha
Summary: Tifa remembers Cloud as blunt and a loner before he left for Midgar to become a SOLDIER so she’s not surprised to discover he’s even more brusque seven years later after all that military training. She imagines the mercenary partner he mentions has to be the same for them to be able to work together, especially when Barret comes back from one short conversation with him and calls him an asshole.Then Zack Fair walks into Seventh Heaven, and Tifa realizes her mistake.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Series: Remake: Zack Lives AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756627
Comments: 40
Kudos: 680





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have other stuff I should be working on, but I couldn't get this idea out of my head so here we are. This is an AU but one strongly based on the Remake as in I've lifted lines from it for sections.

Tifa waits for the group to return on the steps of the bar with Marlene. The explosion had been bigger than she had expected from what she’s heard on the news. Jessie had sworn it would only destroy the pump and storage enough to allow the mako to drain back out, not blow the whole reactor. She wants to hear the first hand explanation on that crucial difference, and see how Cloud has faired on his first official job as a mercenary given that it was way out of the parameters he’d agreed upon with Barret.

“Marlene,” she says, bringing the girl back to full wakefulness when she spots Barret as he towers over the people gathered out in the streets to hear the news.

She jumps up to greet her father, “Daddy, you’re home!”

“That’s right, Angel, I am,” he says boisterously as he picks up Marlene with one arm.

“Welcome back,” Tifa tells him.

Barret heads into the bar while he catches up with Marlene, and Tifa looks back to check that Cloud is alright and following. He doesn’t look any worse for wear despite whatever fighting he probably had to do, and he gives her and Barret a wide berth as he follows them into the bar.

“Where’d you get that?” she asks him, pointing to the flower she can see tucked into the strap of his harness once he stepped into the light from the bar. “I can’t remember the last time I saw a real one.”

He looks down at it like he’s forgotten it was there then pulls it out to give to her.

“How sweet. When did you get so thoughtful?” she asks, mostly curious if he’d bought it specifically to give it to her.

“A guy can change. Has been five years,” he says, not even looking at her anymore.

“Huh?” she asks, wondering if he’s remembering wrong or just rounding the years down. It’s been seven years since he left Nibelheim for Midgar.

“I need to talk to Barret,” he says, completely changing the subject.

“Right. Come on in,” she says, motioning him into the bar.

Cloud causes a bit of a scene as Marlene runs away from him just from him attempting to approach her father. Barret focuses on comforting her rather than dealing with Cloud.

“So, can I get you something?” Tifa asks, hoping she can distract him with a drink.

“My money,” he answers.

“Ah, right, about that,” she says, stepping towards him to keep her voice down. “We should talk. Outside.”

Cloud thankfully follows her out rather than bothering Barret further.

“Before we get onto money, there’s an empty place just down the road. It’s nothing fancy, but I was thinking you could stay there for now. The landlady is a big friend of the cause so you wouldn’t even have to pay that much in rent! Sound good?”

Cloud sighs. “I don’t know if you’re trying to get me to join the group or what, but I already have a place. What I need is my pay.”

Tifa feels her stomach drop. It hadn’t taken much to ask Marle about the apartment since it was her own landlady and Marle liked her, but she’d hoped Cloud would want to stay close by. She wanted something, anything from what was left of her home town, and she thought Cloud and his mercenary partner hadn’t settled yet given how new they were to the city. She’d hoped if she could at least get Cloud into a place close by, this other guy would go along with it. “No, it’s not a trick or anything. I just thought you’d might like to stay someplace close by since you don’t really know anyone in the city yet that’s not Shinra.”

“I don’t, but my partner does. We’ve found a place near hers in the Sector 5 slums.”

“Sector 5?” she asks, wondering if this woman is his partner’s girlfriend or something for them to get a place near hers. “That’s a little far to go this late at night. I’m pretty sure you already caught the last train for the night to get here. Would you want to stay in the place I found, just for tonight?”

Cloud sighs, looking off in the direction of Sector 5. “Fine.”

“Okay, follow me then,” she says. It’s not great that he’ll be so far, but at least he hasn’t asked about his pay again.

He follows after her, and the silence quickly gets awkward.

“How was it up on the plate?” she asks, hoping he’ll give her more than a one word answer.

“It was…chaotic,” he answers which might as well have been a one word answer.

“Sorry for dragging you into all this,” she says. “It was wrong of you to put you in danger like that. I promise I won’t do it again.”

“Danger’s part of the job. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’ll try not to,” she jokes.

“Always happy to stick it to Shinra,” he says with a an undertone of anger to his words. It reminds her of the dumb fights he used to get into with the other boys back home.

“So, you make nice with everyone?”

“Much as I could, all things considered. Maybe not enough for them.”

Well, at least he was aware of how he came off. “Good. You had me worried. You’re not exactly a people person.”

“That’s what my partner’s for.”

Tifa gives him a look for that. He won’t even give her his mercenary partner’s name, but will joke about his personality? Maybe his mercenary partner wasn’t a SOLDIER, stoic, tough guy type after all if he’s the one taking care of PR for the both of them.

“I saw Sector 8 on the news,” she says, leading the conversation on. “It was like a war zone.”

“The news is just another Shinra mouthpiece. They’ll spread whatever lies Shinra tells them to.”

“So, it wasn’t that bad?” she asks, hopeful.

“It was,” he admits.

“Oh, right,” she says, wondering what he meant about the lying if they weren’t lying about the damage to Sector 8. “Here we are, good ol’ Stargazer Heights. The room’s on the second floor. Room 201 is where I sleep. Don’t have time for much else with Seventh Heaven and all, not even to decorate. You’ll be in 202. Don’t worry about the landlady. I already told her about you since I knew you’d be coming back late.”

“You did?” he asks.

“Yes?” she tries then realizes what he meant. “I mean, I told her I had a friend looking for a place to stay. Was that too much?”

“No, it’s fine,” he says then gestures towards the last door. “And on the end?”

Marco was a bit of a sell as a neighbor, but it’s not like Cloud intended to stay. She hedges and says, “It’s getting late. I can introduce you tomorrow.”

Cloud seems to accept that and enters the room. She follows him in.

“It’s a bit bare, but you’re only staying one night. If your really need anything, we can probably get it.”

“There is one thing,” he says, turning back to face her. “My money. You guys owe me two thousand, remember? I was supposed to have it and be back to Sector 5 tonight.”

So he hadn’t forgotten. “I do, and we’d love to settle up, especially since this was your first job for us, but…”

She gives him the money she has on hand to pay him.

“That’s it?” he asks, surprised at seeing only 500 gil.

“Sorry. We spent the rest preparing for the mission. That really is it, but not for long! I’m collecting money for filters tomorrow so I can pay you after.”

He sighs. “And you’re sure about that?”

“Of course. As long as you help, that is. Wait…then I’d have to pay you for that, too. Never mind.”

“No, two thousand’s enough. That’s what we agreed on, so that’ll be the price. With what you gave me, that leaves fifteen hundred.”

“You’re the best,” she says with a smile. Clearly, Cloud hadn’t changed all that much if he was still a softy underneath his harsh words and poor people skills. The mercenary partner as PR was starting to make more sense. She heads for the door to let him sleep and says, “I’ll see you bright and early at the bar then. Thanks again for everything. Sleep tight.”

Tifa heads to her own room to sleep. There’s an incident between Cloud and Marco in the middle of the night, but otherwise he makes it into the bar in the morning just fine as promised.

“Morning,” she greets him when he enters. “Just so you know, Marlene’s still asleep. Let’s get down to business shall we? These water filters won’t replace themselves. Although, the next batch probably could if Jessie put her mind to it.”

Cloud sighs, clearly not gaining any enthusiasm from her explanation.

Tifa continues regardless. “Most every home in the area has one. Folks love ‘em cause they practically eliminate the rotten-egg smell. Honestly, they make us more money than this place, and it’s easy money too. We bring the new filters, collect the old ons, and get paid.”

Cloud looks a little like a drowned cat after the explanation.

“What?” she asks.

He waves a hand. “Gimme a break. I’m not a salesman. I’m a mercenary.”

“Which is why no one will refuse to pay. What do you say? Please?”

He sighs heavily again. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Great, and I’ll give you the grand tour while we’re at it.” 

She leads the way outside with Cloud at her heels. “Just keep whatever we collect as your pay. Barret will be collecting money as well to finish paying you.”

“As long as I get it all today,” he says. “I’ve already kept my partner waiting too long.”

“He controlling?” she asks, trying to keep it casual. Cloud might be ex-SOLDIER, but he was still pretty young. Having a controlling, older mercenary partner would be hellish for him with how little he has to support himself with.

“No,” he says, sounding confused she even asked.

“Okay,” she agrees easily.

It’s a little weird doing collections with Cloud. He’s useful with unhappy customers, needing only to stare them down with his big sword to get them to comply, but unintentionally insulting to any of their nice customers just trying to talk with him.

“If you’re serious about becoming a merc, then you’re going to need to start making connections,” Tifa tells him once they’ve finished collections. “It’s not what you know, but who you know, y’know?”

“Another lesson for life on the ground floor?” he asks, referencing the previous advice she’d given him.

“Yep, connections get you jobs, jobs build you rep, and more rep gets you better connections.”

“How do I start?”

“Why not help out the neighborhood watch? They’re mostly volunteers, but you’ll get to know people.”

“Do you know if they have a neighborhood watch in the Sector 5 slums?” he asks.

The reminder that he’s not staying brings down her mood. “I don’t know, but it’s not like you’ll never come back here, right? It’s better to have options in two sectors than just one, yeah?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I didn’t see anyone in the office when we passed earlier so let’s head up top.”

She leads the way to the upper floor of the weapons shop to find Biggs and Wedge. “Didn’t know you were holding down the fort,” she jokes.

“Hey, Cloud, looking to join the neighborhood watch?” Wedge asks.

“Depends. What does this neighborhood watch do?”

“Uh, lots of stuff really,” Biggs answers. “But our top priority is taking care of any beasts that wander into town. That, and teaching the locals how to defend themselves.” 

“Like they say, the only one who’ll look out for you is you,” Wedge adds.

“Cloud’s a great fighter, but only we know that. If no one knows him, no one will hire him. Thought if he’d join the watch he could get his name out there,” Tifa explains. It doesn’t hurt that if he joins, she’ll get to keep one last little piece of home closer to her.

“That’ll work for everybody,” Wedge says.

“Truth be told, we could really use your help. We can’t pay you in gil, but we’ll work something out,” Bigg says, looking Cloud over. “What about your sword? I could mod it for you.”

Cloud takes a step back when Biggs reaches out towards him. “Can’t do that. It’s my partner’s sword, not mine. You’d have to talk to him about it.”

“You share a sword with your partner?” Wedge asks. “You must be really hard up if you’re sharing a weapon.”

Cloud frowns. “I haven’t been asking for my pay for my own entertainment.”

Tifa decides Cloud’s mercenary partner can’t be all that bad if he’s letting Cloud go around and on missions with one of his weapons. She can’t imagine an asshole letting anyone even touch their weapon let alone use it, and she wouldn’t trust just anybody with her own gloves.

“Well, we can start spreading the word from now on to help you get some jobs,” Biggs promises.

“Thanks,” Cloud says.

When they make it back to the bar, Barret asks for everyone to gather in the basement to discuss the plan and brushes off Cloud’s request for his pay. She quickly fixes Cloud a drink for while he’s waiting to try and soothe his irritation before heading down. The meeting doesn’t go her way.

She heads upstairs first to find Cloud still waiting at the bar. She pours herself a drink and swallows it down before either of them say anything. She takes a seat at the end of the bar with a new glass full of liquor. 

“I heard you’re having second thoughts.”

“I know we have to think big if we’re going to make a difference, but not like this. I feel trapped,” she says, admitting to Cloud what she can’t to the rest of Avalanche.

“If it feels wrong, don’t do it,” he says like it’s that simple. Then again, he should know being ex-SOLDIER.

“Guess that’s that then,” she says as the rest of the group begins to come up.

“What, they kick you out?” he asks.

“We agree to disagree,” she says then forces a smile. “So, you want another drink?”

“Tifa, time to celebrate!” Barret says before Cloud can say anything. “Break out all the good stuff!”

“Oh, sure,” she says, getting back up.

Barret lets Cloud know that he’s not needed for the next mission as well as giving him the rest of his pay. Then the door to Seventh Heaven opens up.

“Hey, has anyone seen - Cloud!” some guy says, sounding the most excited she’s ever heard anyone say Cloud’s name.

“Who in the hell are you?” Barret asks as the guy ignores all of them to go straight to Cloud.

Once he’s closer to the bar, Tifa can place the guy’s face. “Zack Fair?”

The SOLDIER first class looks up at his name, giving her a confused look. “Uh, yeah, who’s asking?”

“Tifa,” Cloud says. “You met her in Nibelheim.”

Zack stares at her for a moment before recognition sets in and he gives her a smile. “Oh right. Nice to see you again.”

Like it wasn’t a goddamn miracle they’ve now met again after what happened. Zack Fair hasn’t even been seen by anyone since Nibelheim. Taking a second look at Cloud’s giant sword, she can recognize it as Zack’s sword rather than some generic, big, ex-SOLDIER sword. “Nice to see you, too,” she says, trying to take in everything.

“This guy your mercenary partner?” Wedge asks, coming closer to investigate.

“That’s what you told them I was?” Zack asks Cloud quietly before turning back to Wedge. “I will be once I finish recovering.”

“No, I told them you were my partner,” Cloud insists.

“I don’t care what you are,” Barret tells him. “This is a private party, and you need to get out.”

“That’s fine. I’ve got what I came for,” Zack says, pulling Cloud up from his stool. “And someone has to make up for leaving me cold and lonely last night.”

“Oh,” Tifa says, suddenly realizing the huge, _huge_ mistake she’s made.

“It wasn’t intentional,” Cloud says, letting Zack pull him towards the exit. “We caught the last train back last night just to get here, and I didn’t even finish getting paid until just now.”

“I’d rather know you’re safe over any amount of money,” Zack says.

Tifa just stares at him in shock.

Cloud just sighs in a way that sounds completely exasperated, but also unbearably fond. Tifa can’t really see what sort of expression he’s making as he’s facing Zack, but she can’t even imagine what he’d have to look like to match that sound. Cloud says, “You know we need money to live, right?”

“We’ll be fine,” Zack says, moving to put his arms around Cloud’s shoulders. Cloud just leans into to accommodate him better, and Tifa didn’t think accommodation of any kind was a thing Cloud was capable of before this. “Thanks for taking care of Cloud. We’ll see you around!”

And like that they leave the bar.

“I thought he didn’t like when people touched him,” Biggs says.

“I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard him say,” Jessie adds. “That’s definitely the nicest I’ve ever seen him be though.”

“Well, of course he’s going to be nicer to him. They’re partners,” Tifa says, putting her head in her hands and wondering how she didn’t see it before. Who brings up their mercenary partner at every opportunity? No one, not even people like Cloud, but they do bring up romantic partners.

“Yeah, we know, they just said,” Wedge says, heading back to the table with Biggs and Jessie. “I guess fighting together longer is what gets Cloud to be friendly with you.”

“They’re romantic partners,” Barret says. “Didn’t you hear him say they shared a bed?”

Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie all look at Barret in shock.

“Why didn’t you say that then?” Biggs asks Tifa.

“He’s gay?” Jessie asks. “I thought he was into Tifa.”

“I would have clarified, but I really thought Cloud meant a mercenary partner,” Tifa says, pulling her head out of her hands. “He wasn’t exactly close to anybody growing up. I just didn’t see it, let alone a relationship that serious.”

It couldn’t be anything but extremely serious. Zack let Cloud carry his personal weapon. Zack and Cloud lived together and shared a bed. Cloud went where Zack went and trusted his friends. They worried about each even when separated for only a day, which only makes extra sense as they’re both ex-SOLDIER. Hell, Zack said the most romantic thing Tifa’s ever heard completely casually in public like both he and Cloud already knew for a fact that was just how it was between them. Cloud didn’t even get embarrassed over it which just shows how serious the relationship was because Cloud used to get awkward and embarrassed at the slightest hint of anything resembling affection, and he just took a public romantic declaration with only a sigh.

Tifa had no chance of getting Cloud to stay in Sector 7 if Zack wanted to stay in Sector 5. She doesn’t get too disappointed in that because it’s hard to see Zack not wanting to get to know her as Cloud’s friend given how personable he was and how much he cared about Cloud. No wonder Cloud was leaving the PR stuff to his partner seeing it was Zack.

“Enough about that. The merc’s personal business isn’t our concern,” Barret says, waving any chance of further gossip about Cloud off. “This is a celebration for us and our achievement!”

Tifa sighs and starts pulling down the good stuff to make drinks. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just thought it would be really funny in the middle of Cloud's super tough guy act for Avalanche which mostly just convinces them he's a bit of an asshole someone who actually knows him and that he likes walks in and down goes the act. So Zack gets to live just for that. I do have an idea of a continuation for this, but because I may never get to it I'm going to add background info. 
> 
> Cloud still has memory gaps he just doesn't think he's Zack because Zack lived  
> Zack and Cloud went straight to Aerith in the Sector 5 slums to live there so Cloud knows Aerith when he runs into her after the bombing but she still ends up giving him a flower  
> Zack's not dead but he was seriously injured and is still recovering from it mostly for the plot convenience of Cloud still doing the mercenary jobs and not Zack but also you can't just survive when you should have died for free  
> Cloud was the one to insist on calling each other partners over boyfriends because he thought boyfriend didn't sound serious enough for what they'd been through. 
> 
> Also, can you imagine living in the slums where everyone is like you can't rely on anyone to take care of you, you gotta defend yourself, any relationship you have only matters for its monetary utility/getting jobs, and then someone walks in and casually says I care so much about you that I'd rather see you safe even if it costs me? I don't actually think that the slums really work like that because the in game dialogue runs directly counter to their actions like they literally say you're the only one that's gonna look out for you when discussing a neighborhood watch which literally is about getting rid of monsters to collectively make the slums safer but also saying that they give martial training to anyone who asks which is also completely counter to what they just said, but it would probably still be considered very romantic to say you cared about someone in that manner there because if it's all talk then this is still someone going that talk is bullshit and I'm going to prove it by saying I'm literally doing the opposite. I just have too many thoughts on the incongruity between speech and actions in the slums.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who apparently didn't want to work on their other fics and is very easily swayed by comments?
> 
> Gonna be honest, normally it takes me forever to get stuff out when I follow canon this closely, but whatever here's a chapter.

Tifa didn’t see Zack again for a few days though she saw Cloud again when he came with her and Barret on the Reactor 5 bombing. Cloud had fallen from below the plate after fighting the Air Buster, but she had a little hope that he could survive it given his SOLDIER enhancements. In any case, she didn’t have time to look for him, or his body if that was the case, when they quickly realized that people were tracking Barret as well as whispers of Shinra wanting to strike back at Avalanche. Instead, she found herself dressing up to infiltrate Don Corneo’s mansion in Wall Market as a “bride.”

She sits in the chocobo pulled carriage psyching herself up for however many goons she’ll have to punch her way through when she hears a noise from outside the carriage. She looks up to see Cloud keeping up with the carriage.

“Cloud, you’re alive. I thought we’d lost you,” she says, meaning it in a literal and metaphorical sense. Midgar was a big city, even just the areas under the plate, and it was always possible that he and Zack could decide that working for Avalanche was too dangerous.

“What’s going on?” he asks as he steps onto the carriage’s back step and grabs onto the carriage’s gate. She kneels down at the gate to speak quietly with him.

“I’ll explain everything later,” she says, making a shushing motion to signal him to keep his voice down. “Right now I’m on my way to see Don Corneo. You should head back to Seventh Heaven, meet up with the gang since I’m guessing you were on your way to let them know you’re alright.”

“But-.”

“I’ll be fine,” she says because she does not need a heavy duty fighter mucking up her infiltration plan. It also wouldn’t help her to get in if she shows up with a man. “You’ve seen how much ass I can kick.”

“I have,” he says reluctantly then steps off and lets her go.

She sits back in the carriage again to play her part to get inside. Walking into Corneo’s mansion doesn’t feel any more nerve wracking than walking into Shinra. Most of the goons don’t look that impressive to her, don’t even look past her dress, and leave her alone in the basement to wait for Corneo to pick her out of three brides. That does give her a bit of anxiety, that she’d just walked into danger and may not get the information she wanted after all. She bides her time by inspecting everything that had been piled into the room, but doesn’t find anything useful in all the dusty furniture and knickknacks. A lot of them look like torture devices, but she’s not going to think too hard about that.

Tifa has given up on searching the room and moved into impatience for how long it’s taking Corneo to get his act together when two unconscious women are thrown into the room with her. One’s blond in a black dress with a blue corset, and the other auburn in a red dress, and she guesses they’re other “brides” for Corneo.

Tifa goes to help the blond in the black dress first, feeling like there’s something familiar about her. When she starts waking up, Tifa asks, “Hey, can you hear me?”

The woman jerks upright, and Tifa startles back.

“Tifa?” she asks, and her voice sounds familiar, too. It should be pretty memorable given how deep it was for a woman. 

“Yes?” Tifa answers cautiously.

“You okay?” she asks, suddenly serious even though she’s been awake for only a handful of seconds and they don’t know each other.

“Mhhm,” Tifa says, wondering if she’s missing something.

“Good.”

“Wait a minute,” Tifa says, dots suddenly connecting, “Cloud, is that you?”

He looks embarrassed which is weird considering he was already assuming she recognized him.

“Oh my god,” she says, looking him over with new eyes and somewhat impressed despite herself. It was a rush job, to be sure, and especially obvious with the bad extensions they’d put it that would probably look like a bad mullet if he hadn’t braided them. Covering his arms and disguising the breadth of his shoulders with a puffy shouldered cropped jacket helped him to pass more as a woman. The corset and full skirt with extra fabric at the hips did the rest of the work between highlighting his skinny waist and then flaring out to give the illusion of a more hourglass figure than he actually had. The make up was extremely light, not nearly enough contouring to disguise his masculine facial features, but the very pink lips and complimentary eye make up did the job of distracting from them well enough. The girlish blush didn’t hurt either. “That makeup, and that dress.”

She wanted to know where the hell he’d gotten any of it done for him because what she remembered of Cloud’s fashion sense was baggy, baggier, and baggiest. Even the SOLDIER uniforms had baggy pants like he preferred. There was no way he’d intentionally picked out something that actually showed off his waistline on his own. Had Zack done it? Tifa immediately regretted that thought and the multiple cans of worms it could open.

“Nailed it, I know. Thank you. Moving on,” he says brusquely, obviously uncomfortable with her scrutiny.

She comes very close to laughing a little hysterically over how weird this all is.

The other woman making noise as she wakes up distracts them. Tifa’s pretty confident she’s actually a woman and not Zack because some real work would have had to be put in to get fake boobs to look right in a backless, strapless dress. She was also much too small to be Zack.

“You okay?” Cloud asks, quickly moving to help her stand back up.

“Yeah, a little woozy, but I’ll manage.”

Then this lady comes over to Tifa all friendly and says, “Hey, Tifa, how you doing?”

“Okay…” she says, now wondering if maybe it _is_ Zack since she knows her name.

“Oh, right, sorry, I’m Aerith, a friend of Cloud and Zack’s,” she explains. “We were worried and thought we’d come help you out.”

“Oh, so you’re the friend in Sector 5,” Tifa says.

“Yep, that’s me.”

“Cut the chatter. We’ve gotta leave now,” Cloud says, making his way towards the exit and really ruining what chance he had of passing as a woman with how he walked.

“No, not until I’ve got what I came for,” Tifa insists.

“What?” he asks, and she can’t tell if it’s a what asking her to explain the situation so he can help or a what to tell her she’s being ridiculous.

She decides to explain. “After we made it back to the slums, some guys came around asking all kinds of questions. So I did some digging.”

“And found out they were Corneo’s men.” 

“Right. They were interested in Avalanche, but I couldn’t figure out why. So I figured I’d come and ask the man himself.”

“Seriously?” Cloud asks, exasperated.

“Thought if I could find a way in and get some one on one time, I’d get answers, but then I realized I’d be only one of three candidates. If he didn’t pick me then it would all be for nothing.”

“Then your worries are over, aren’t they?” Aerith asks cheerfully, moving to stand beside Cloud. “Because the other two candidates are right here, right?”

“Right,” Cloud says like he just remembered he was in a dress and extensions and was embarrassed all over again.

“So yeah! If we’re all in on it then nothing can go wrong,” Aerith adds.

“Uh, I guess,” Tifa hedges, still not sure how to talk with this strange woman. She definitely seems the type to be Zack’s friend at least.

“You, me, Cloud, makes no difference who gets chosen, does it?”

“I dunno, Aerith. It feels wrong getting you involved in all this,” she says. She knew the risks coming in and that she could handle them. She’s sure Cloud can handle himself as well even with a dress on, but she knows nothing about Aerith. She honestly seems a little too unconcerned about the situation.

Cloud sighs. “Don’t even bother trying to talk her out of it.”

“Aw, Cloud gets me. Took you long enough,” she says, delivering a playful pat to his shoulder.

Cloud just seems to be refraining from rolling his eyes over it. “So what happens now?”

“I think they’ll call for us when it’s time,” Tifa answers.

“This room gives me the creeps,” Aerith says, looking around them.

“Yeah, I’m pretending it’s just for storage.”

After a few minutes, a gong rings and one of Corneo’s men instructs them to come upstairs.

“Alright, guys, let’s do this,” Cloud says.

“Do you want to do this?” Tifa asks.

Cloud gives her a look that says he definitely doesn’t want to be involved in any of this, but here they are. He leads the way upstairs, a little slower and more awkward than normal due to the dress. He stands in line with her and Aerith and is clearly sneaking peaks at them to adjust how he stands.

One of the goons acts as announcer says, “Introducing Wall Market’s most eligible bachelor, the one and only Don Corneo!”

“Ladies,” Don Corneo says, popping out from behind the wall like a little creep. The man was shorter, fatter, and uglier than Tifa had pictured him to be. He also twitches his hands out in front of him like a little rat. “Nice, very nice.”

The closer he got, the grosser he looked. He even laughed like a creep. “Whichever one shall I pick?”

He then pulls a particularly creepy move where he practically shoved his face into Aerith’s knees then slowly stood back up all without moving his face more than a foot away from her. Tifa glares at him as soon as he shifts his back towards her. She wonders how much trouble it would cause to just kill him after getting the information she needs.

“Shall I pick you?” he asks Aerith who says nothing.

“Or maybe you?” he then asks while circling around Tifa, clearly keeping his eyes on her breasts once they’re in sight.

He seems a little impressed by Cloud, pausing for a moment as he looks him over, then laughs again and makes his way over to Cloud. Corneo actually reaches out and pats Cloud’s arm, and Tifa feels grossed out for him. Then Corneo steps back and turns away from all three of them to then shout, “Oh yeah, I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”

He spins back around, facing Tifa. “Today’s bride to be is…”

Tifa thinks she might actually not be able to hold back her vomit if he picks her even if that is what she needs to get the information. He’s just that gross.

“Today’s?” Aerith asks for clarification.

“And tomorrow’s,” the announcer guy says. “Or the day after’s if the don takes a shine to you.”

“Pathetic,” Cloud says.

Tifa’s pretty sure he didn’t really mean to say it as he didn’t even try to disguise his voice which could reveal the deception. It also puts him squarely in Corneo’s attention.

“Hey, which one of you said that?” he asks like it wasn’t extremely obvious. He moves towards Cloud. “Was it you?”

Cloud says nothing and keeps his head lowered.

Then Corneo gets his little rat hands up and says, “Ooh, you got a mouth on you! I’m going to enjoy breaking it in.”

Tifa is pretty sure Cloud would be breaking Corneo’s jaw first.

“Today’s lucky lady is the big boned girl,” he announces then takes Cloud’s hand to lead him to his room, but Cloud stays firmly put. “Still playing hard to get? I can dig it, oh yeah.”

Tifa really didn’t need to know about Corneo’s kinks, and of course the one time Cloud dresses up as a woman he runs right into a guy who is into his natural stubbornness.

Cloud goes with Corneo the next time he tugs on his hand, and Corneo says, “The leftovers are all yours.”

His goons cheer because of course one rapist is going to employ other rapists. Tifa is going to savor breaking all of their faces in. The announcer guy leads her and Aerith up to a room on the second floor, announcing that they’re the entertainment.

“So ladies, ready to,” one of the men asks, coming towards them, “get to it?”

“Yeah, I guess I’m ready to go whenever,” Aerith says, making her meaning clear with just a look. “How about you, Tifa?”

“Four guys between us,” she says as she looks around. They’re all thinking with their dicks and not their heads now. She turns to Aerith, “Okay, let’s not keep Cloud waiting.”

“Right,” she confirms with a nod before starting them off by kicking the first guy in the groin. They finish the rest of the men off just as quickly.

“Good job, Aerith,” she says, genuinely impressed after seeing her smack down a guy with a folding chair. Truly, her kind of woman.

“It was nothing compared to you,” she says, mimicking Tifa’s punching.

The meet in the middle of the room to high five then the door opens. Tifa prepares for another fight, but in walks the don’s doorman with Zack right behind him. Zack’s wearing his own sword again, looking barely any different from all those years before in Nibelheim. Really, the only difference is the lack of SOLDIER uniform as he wore other dark clothing and a replacement armored belt to help secure the sword harness.

The doorman doesn’t look all that impressed with the four unconscious guys on the ground. “Andrea filled me in on the situation. I come bearing gifts - namely your really annoying boyfriend.”

“I’m not annoying, but the fact that I was able to walk in like this means I was right that we didn’t need to go running around with all the hand massages and dancing and getting dresses, and I told you so,” Zack says then stops.

“Hand massages and dancing?” Tifa asks, extremely confused. She also doesn’t know what gear they brought because she’d hidden her gloves in her Wutaian dress’ sleeves.

“Where’s Cloud?” Zack asks.

“With Corneo getting the information we need,” Aerith says, pulling clothes out of the bag Zack had brought with him. Tifa also notices he has a second sword with him as well as a staff.

“Information?” Zack asks. “I thought we were coming in here to rescue Tifa. Why is Cloud with Corneo?”

“I came in here to get information since Corneo has been sending men after us,” Tifa explains, pulling on her gloves. “Except Cloud got picked by Corneo instead of me.”

“So he’s with that creep alone?” Zack asks, already heading for the exit.

“Wait up,” Aerith says, kicking off her heels.

The doorman follows Zack out, shutting the door behind himself.

“We gotta change quick,” Aerith says, quickly stripping off her dress. “We bought you some clothes before coming here because we weren’t sure what you had was good for fighting in.”

“Oh thanks,” Tifa says then looks into what was left in the bag. For a moment, she thinks it is her clothes with the white top and black bottoms. Instead, the top is a t-shirt not her usual crop top and the bottoms a pair of shorts, and both are a little big. She can’t help imagining that Cloud had something to do with that. There’s even a pair of flat, closed toed shoes, though they thankfully fit properly. She changes quickly, noting that there’s half a SOLDIER’s uniform still in the bag.

They catch up to Zack fighting off the guards in the antechamber to Corneo’s bedroom with the second sword and the staff left resting on the desk in the center. Tifa can see the difference in him now. The punches he lands are still effective, but overall he’s much slower than he used to be. She’s not sure if he can use his sword. She helps out by taking down the guard distracted by him and ending the fight. He passes the staff over to Aerith who takes it with a serious nod.

“Okay, let’s get Cloud,” Zack says, and Tifa tries not to worry about how he seems to rest on the desk for a moment before he can continue on to the bedroom. 

Zack leads the way into the room and they find Corneo back on the bed and Cloud standing at the foot of it and looking very pissed off.

“Who are you?” Corneo asks.

“Cloud, your clothes,” Aerith says, ignoring the don. She holds out the bag to Cloud, and he eagerly takes it.

“I get you want your own clothes, but do you have to do it in the room with _him_?” Zack says, glaring down at the don who is definitely watching Cloud with pervy interest.

“I’ve still got my pants on under the skirt,” Cloud answers, pulling the top half of his SOLDIER uniform out of the bag. “And I can’t breathe in this corset.”

“Fine, just,” Zack says before he puts his hands on Cloud’s shoulder to guide him into switching places with him. Now, the taller and broader Zack stands between the don and Cloud.

Tifa glares down at the don when even that doesn’t seem to put the don off because he can still hear Cloud undress. Tifa can only half see it out of the corner of her eye as Cloud gets the little cropped jacket off easily then has to shimmy out of the black skirt, revealing that he was wearing his SOLDIER pants and boots underneath. He then gets stuck on the corset. “How do I-?”

“Calm down, I got it,” Zack says.

Tifa half expects him to pull out a knife and just cut the lacing to rip open the bodice which definitely doesn’t come from the romance novels she hasn’t read though that would probably be the quickest way to get a corset off. Instead, Zack gently and efficiently unlaces the corset, and she can hear when Cloud takes in a full, deep breath once it’s loose enough. Cloud pulls off the corset and quickly puts his shirt on.

“Okay, now that we’re all ready,” Zack says, turning to face the don which also moves him from between the don and Cloud.

“You’re a man?” the don asks, staring directly at Cloud’s chest. He actually doesn’t seem less interested in Cloud after this revelation. What a creep. “What are you all up to?”

“We’ll ask the questions,” Tifa says, stepping forward. “Like, why’d you have men in Sector 7 asking about Avalanche?”

“Dunno what you’re talking about,” he says, sitting back on the bed. He still seems to be somewhat distracted by Cloud, and Tifa can hear Cloud putting his belt and sword harness back on.

“Don’t play dumb with me. Let’s try again,” she says, crossing her arms and taking a menacing step forward. “Why did you have men in Sector 7 asking about Avalanche? Spill the beans or…”

“I’ll cut ‘em off,” Cloud threatens from behind her.

“Alright, alright, I’ll talk, I’ll talk,” Corneo says, flinching back and clamping his legs together. “Some guy with a gun for an arm, I was paid to find him.”

“Paid by who?” Tifa asks.

“I can’t tell you that. They’d hunt me down like a dog!”

“Well, you better, cause if you don’t-”

“I’ll rip ‘em off,” Aerith finishes. She honestly doesn’t sound that intimidating though it seems to work on Corneo.

“It was the director of public security! Heidegger. It was Heidegger.”

“Shinra? What are they planning?”

“Are we surprised it’s Shinra?” Tifa can hear Zack whisper, probably to Cloud, but she doesn’t look away from Corneo to check.

“Some things are better left unsaid, you know,” Corneo says.

“See, I’m not so sure that they are. Better keep talking,” Aerith threatens, trailing off.

“Or I’ll smash ‘em,” Tifa finishes.

Corneo doesn’t whimper this time, instead he laughs. For some reason, he now seems to think he has the upper hand. “Alright, you got me. I could never say no to a sexy girl. Since Avalanche blew up two reactors, Shinra’s decided they oughtta stamp ‘em out, home base and all. And I mean stamp out.”

He demonstrates by smashing one hand into the other horizontally, like leveling the ground. “By targeting the support pillar and blowing it up.”

“The pillar?” she asks.

“Did I stutter? The plate will come crashing down,” he says, making explosion noises and gesturing with his little rat hands. “It’ll be Sector 6 all over again. I’m sure you’ve been there and seen the wreckage for yourself. So you know exactly what Sector 7 will look like.”

“They wouldn’t,” she says while also knowing what they did to Nibelheim.

“Come on, guys, we gotta go,” Aerith says.

“Before you do,” Corneo says.

“No,” Zack and Cloud retort at the same time.

“Please, this won’t take long.”

Against her better judgment, Tifa turns back to hear him out.

“As everyone knows, villains only divulge their plans in a certain situation, but what is that situation?”

“When they think they’ve won,” Zack answers, already reaching out for Cloud.

“Bingo,” Corneo says, pulling a lever built into his bed frame and dropping the floor out from below them.

Tifa tries to grab for something, anything, but the walls are sheer, and she hits the ground hard. She wakes up to Cloud calling her name and her face on slimy wet tile that smells terrible. She pushes herself up right away, “We have to get back to the slums right now.”

“Yeah,” he says. He looks weird with half his make up left and his extensions and dangle earrings in with the SOLDIER uniform. He looks away, and she follows his gaze to see Zack helping Aerith up.

“I didn’t mean to get so many people brought into this,” she says.

“It’s fine,” Cloud says.

There’s a rather loud roaring sound then that sounds a little close for comfort.

“I say we get moving,” Zack says, but he groans loudly when he gets to his feet. “I took that harder than I wanted to.”

“You can’t use healing materia?” Tifa asks as Cloud quickly rushes to his side.

“It’s a long term injury,” Aerith says, meaning materia can’t help him on this one.

“I’m fine,” Zack assures Cloud even though he’s not quite standing upright. “It can’t have set me back too much.”

Tifa can hear the heavy footsteps of whatever beast Corneo put down here to finish off his enemies. “I don’t see any exits except for the one that sounds occupied.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Cloud says sternly to Zack.

Tifa can only see Zack’s face from where she’s standing, and he’s giving Cloud some serious puppy dog eyes.

“Fine,” Zack sighs, quickly darting forward to press a kiss to Cloud’s head.

Zack steps back as the monster enters the room, and Cloud draws out his sword. Then it’s Cloud standing between Zack and the danger. Tifa has to keep her focus on the beast as she fights, but she assumes Zack keeps his word as he never gets hurt or in their way over the course of the battle despite it covering the entirety of the room. The battle ends when the beast breaks through the wall into another section of the sewer and walks off.

“Do you think it lives down here?” Aerith asks.

“Probably Corneo’s pet and we were dinner,” Cloud says.

“I hate not being able to do anything,” Zack says as he returns to Cloud’s side. “This sucks.”

“I know,” Cloud says as he starts undoing one of the braids.

“Hey,” Tifa starts at the lull point in the conversation. “You don’t believe that crazy story of his, do you? Shinra wouldn’t sacrifice a whole sector just to take out Avalanche, would they? Destroying part of the city, killing all those people, just to get at us?”

Cloud and Zack share a look, but she doesn’t know what they mean by it.

“I don’t know, would Corneo make up shit just to screw with you?” Cloud asks which didn’t actually answer her questions. It also doesn’t make her feel any better about the situation.

“I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“But if he was telling the truth,” Aerith says. “And there’s still a chance he was, isn’t there? Then we should go. And if it turns out he was lying then so what, right?”

“Doubt he’s lying,” Zack says, putting his hands on his hips. “Who needs to lie to dead people? Besides, haven’t you been paying attention to what Shinra’s been putting out? They’re claiming Avalanche is funded by Wutai. If it’ll get them what they want, which is sounding an awful lot like a new war on Wutai, then they’ll do it.”

“I think the main branch of Avalanche has taken money from Wutai, but we haven’t,” Tifa admits. “So we really need to get going then.”

“Yeah, if we can find a way out,” Zack says.

“I think these tunnels are all connected,” Tifa says, moving towards the hole in the wall the giant monster had created. “We should be able to get to Sector 7 from here.”

“Great, love traveling in sewers,” he says.

Tifa turns back to find the group following her. “The sewers under Sector 6 and 7 are connected. 'If you get in trouble just follow the stench.’”

“It’s going to smell worse?” Zack asks, distraught.

“Is this another one of those lessons for life in the slums?” Cloud asks, and he’s now working on undoing the second braid as he walks. Tifa was right about it looking like a bad mullet.

“Pretty sure I learned the opposite lesson,” Aerith muses. 

“Yeah, well, you grow flowers so of course you would,” Zack says.

“You grow flowers?” Tifa asks, thinking of the flower Cloud had given her and wondering how anyone in the slums could grow flowers. “Never mind. It’s actually an Avalanche saying. We’ve used the sewers to move around the undercity in emergencies.”

“Sure we’re not lost?” Cloud asks.

“Positive,” she says, looking up and down the tunnel for familiar signs. “There should be a big waterway up ahead. Let’s find that first. Just watch out for any monsters. Some of them like it down here because it’s wet.”

“Lead the way,” Aerith says.

“You need help with that?” Zack asks.

Tifa turns back to see that he’s asking Cloud who is still struggling with getting his extensions out. Cloud says nothing for a moment then mutters, “Yes.”

Zack steps in closer to him to help him with the extensions on the side closer to him. It takes him a second to get the extensions out.

“How did you do that so fast?” Cloud asks.

“Well, I can see what I’m doing for one thing,” Zack says before pulling out the last of Cloud’s extensions. “Better?”

“Mhhm,” Cloud agrees.

“Now what do we do with these?” Zack asks, holding the fake hair up.

“You can put them in the bag with the rest of the stuff,” Aerith offers, holding up the bag they’d been carrying all their stuff in. Tifa feels a flash of embarrassment for having forgotten about an entire dress that hadn’t been cheap to get from being so focused on getting back to sector 7. At least someone had remembered it. “I just don’t know if Madam M is gonna want the dress back after it’s sat in sewer water.”

“I wouldn’t want it back,” Zack says, shoving the extensions into the bag. “We have anything to get all the make up off?”

“We can worry about it later,” Cloud says.

Tifa figures it’s his choice, but he also doesn’t know that it’s looking pretty atrocious after landing in a puddle of sewer water and fighting Corneo’s pet. Most of it has smeared off, but what’s left is on its way to giving him raccoon eyes.

“It’s looking pretty bad,” Aerith tells him.

“Can’t be worse than yours,” he says.

Well, Aerith’s eye make up had definitely lasted better, it was probably waterproof, but whatever she’d used for foundation was definitely not doing her any favors anymore. Tifa didn’t want to know what her own make up looked like. She didn’t have any waterproof make up, and she’d used some pretty vibrant eye shadow to match her dress. At least she hadn’t gone full coverage like Aerith had.

“It might not look great, but it won’t kill us,” Tifa says, pushing onward.

They reach the waterway as she had promised, and she lifts the lock to let the water flow out so they can cross. She checks they’re all together as she leads the way down the stairs to go up the other set to reach the other side as the smell gets worse the lower they go. Aerith looks uncomfortable with the smell, but Tifa’s pretty sure Cloud is holding his breath and Zack is outright holding his nose.

“I’ll try to be quick with getting us out of here,” she says after putting the lock back down.

She leads the way through the maze like passages of the sewers towards Sector 7, carefully keeping track of landmarks. They run into wererats and other more aquatic pests as they continue.

“I love when you say dumb, cocky shit,” Zack tells Cloud when they finish off another little pack of wererats. “Never in doubt? So good.”

“You say dumb, cocky shit all the time,” Cloud retorts.

“I know. I’m such a good influence,” he says, hand to his chest.

Cloud then seems to get that it’s genuine and not sarcastic and reacts the way he always used to by shyly ducking his head. It’s funny with how serious he and Zack are, but maybe some things haven’t changed.

“Now’s not the time for flirting,” Aerith says. “We gotta check on the plate.”

“You saying I can’t multitask?” Zack asks.

“It’s not multitasking if you aren’t fighting,” she says.

“Ouch.”

They reach a section of the sewer tunnels where the lights have been shut off aside from a few dim emergency lights. Tifa moves into the dark cautiously now that she can’t see where the slimier spots are and says, “There should be an electrical room around here where we can turn the lights back on.”

“We’ll follow you,” Aerith says.

A few yards down the tunnel, she finds a door with an emergency light by it and heads for it, “This should be it.”

She opens the door, pleased to find she was right. The room is also a lot less smelly and much drier than the tunnels. It’s not fresh air, but it is significantly better air. “Oh,” she says in disappointment as she finally takes a closer look at the switch for the power.

“That’s a power generator all right,” Cloud says, inspecting the box.

“Wow. Talk about ancient,” Aerith says, poking around the box as well.

“It’ll be a miracle if that works,” Zack points out. “That thing’s older than the mako reactors.”

Cloud reaches out and flips the switch anyways. There’s a noise as the generator starts up.

“Huh,” Zack says. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Tifa opens the doors to check if the lights still work after all that and says, “Hey, would you look at that.”

“And let there be light,” Aerith says as they head out into the newly lit hall.

Tifa can now see a graffiti Stamp on the wall left by some other Avalanche agent, assuring her they’re headed in the right direction. She leads the way on, more confident with the lights back. Then they hit a section of the tunnels where the walls go from brick to concrete with a large waterway separating them from the other side.

“This is it,” she announces, examining the area where a bridge is clearly missing. “Sector 7 should be on the other side of this waterway. Once we cross over to the other side, we can start looking for a way back to the surface.”

“Oh thank the goddess,” Zack says, dropping his shoulders. “I can’t take anymore of this stench.”

“Think it’s gonna be hard to get across,” Cloud says, eying the broken bridge. He could probably get across on his own, given what she’s seen of his jumping ability, but that still leaves the 3 of them.

“Let’s try to make our way down the tunnel, see if we can’t use those gates to clear a path,” Tifa suggests, pointing down the length of the waterway.

Opening the locks to clear away the water to get across either over the tops of the locks or in the emptied canal makes a lot of monsters that had been living in the water mad, but they steadily make their way down the tunnel towards the exit to Sector 7. Their last crossing has to be over a series of three float rafts after they’ve refilled the water way as there’s no ladders down and no path to the top of the lock.

“I’ll go first,” Cloud says before stepping cautiously onto the first raft.

Zack follows him, looking more unsteady than Cloud on the bobbing rafts. Tifa wonders exactly what injuries he has to be unable to fight. Looking at Zack also reminds her about his opinion on Corneo’s info.

“Dammit,” she hisses turning to Aerith. “I can’t stop thinking about what Corneo said.”

“I know. Me too,” Aerith says, giving her a sympathetic look.

“It’s gotta be a trick. There’s no way they’d go that far,” she says then shakes her head. “If Corneo was telling the truth, we have to get there in time to stop it. We have to. Do you think Zack’s right that they’ll really do it?”

Aerith bites her lip and looks away. “Zack knows better than any of us what Shinra’s willing to do.”

It sounds like deflecting, same as Cloud had sounded earlier. “Aerith, what are you not telling me?”

“Guys, c’mon, we gotta keep moving,” Cloud calls out to them.

Tifa turns around to see both Zack and Cloud have finished crossing. “Coming,” she calls out to them before telling Aerith, “I’ll go first.”

Tifa’s been over floating bridges before as they’re cheaper than proper ones, and this isn’t a good one. She hurries across then turns back to see Aerith hadn’t followed. “C’mon, Aerith, your turn,” she calls out to encourage her.

Aerith’s by far the most cautious and unstable on the bridge. Tifa doubts it’s her fault as the bridge starts to sink beneath her feet as she nears the end, so Tifa reaches out to pull her onto solid ground. “That was close,” she says as she watches the bridge finish sinking.

“Thanks, you saved me,” Aerith tells her.

“Least I could do,” she says with a smile.

“Okay, can we get outta here now?” Zack asks. He heads up the ladder to the high floor first, and they follow him up.

“Still thinking about the plate?” Aerith asks when she overhears Tifa telling herself to focus. Just looking at Zack is making her think that he might be right.

“Yeah,” she admits.

“The future isn’t set in stone,” Aerith says. “That’s what I always tell myself.”

“Yeah, I hope you’re right,” she says.

“How about this then?” Aerith asks as Zack begins crossing the bridge to the section above the waterway that’ll get them to the exit. “Think of something fun. After saving Sector 7 you’re gonna…?”

“I’m gonna,” Tifa starts, picking up from Aerith. “Go shopping, topside. I’ll buy stuff for the bar, decorations, coasters.”

“Can I come?” she asks.

“You’d better,” she says. Aerith might be Zack’s friend, but Tifa can’t help that she’s growing on her.

“Then it’s a date,” Aerith agrees, and they both laugh over that as they start across the walkway.

“Cloud can carry all our stuff,” Tifa teases in quieter tone, knowing he’s right behind them.

“He’ll be our pack chocobo,” she agrees in the same tone.

“What was that about me?” Cloud asks, proving the effectiveness of his SOLDIER senses.

“Nothing,” Tifa calls back to him as they continue walking.

Then there’s a cracking sound from below them. “No way,” Tifa says.

“C’mon, Tifa,” Aerith says, grabbing Tifa’s wrist and sprinting the last bit of the way.

Tifa turns back expecting Cloud to be right behind them, but he’d been farther behind them than she’d thought. He jumps from the halfway point of the bridge with it already falling beneath his feet. Zack moves much faster than her, already at the edge of the broken bridge before she can even reach out her hand. He grabs Cloud’s hand mid fall and quickly hauls him into safety.

“Zack,” Cloud says, worried about him even though he’d been the one about to go down with the bridge. “You’re not supposed to lift that much weight.”

“I’m fine,” Zack says, but he’s already doubling over and hissing in pain. “Damn that hurts.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Cloud says, distressed.

“Don’t be,” Zack says, and Tifa wonders if his breathing is okay. “I’m not.”

“Do you need to sit down?” Aerith asks gently.

Zack shakes his head. “I’m not staying down here a second longer than I have to.”

It still takes him a few, long moments to be able to stand upright and keep walking. Cloud practically glues himself to his side. They move a lot slower like that, but it’s not far to the ladders that start taking them up.

“That’s the exit,” Tifa says excitedly, pointing to a ladder that lead up to the surface.

“Let’s go then,” Aerith says.

As they reach the ladder, a bunch of Sahagins pop out of the sewer water in greater numbers than they’d seen anywhere else in the sewers.

“Looks like they’re hungry for more,” Tifa says, wondering if it would be alright to face them down with Zack’s aggravated injury and when they needed to report to Avalanche about the plate.

“We’re not delicious. Not even a little bit,” Aerith says.

Quite frankly, they were all running out of steam and fighting was looking like a bad idea with the exit to their backs.

“Get going,” Cloud commands.

“Now,” Tifa adds, but only Aerith moves for the exit.

Tifa punches and knocks back one of the Sahagins that tries to approach and attack while Cloud blocks the attack of another.

“You, too,” Cloud says to her and Zack.

“But there’s too many of them,” Tifa says.

“Not for me.”

“Not the time for dumb, cocky shit, babe,” Zack says, grabbing both Tifa’s and Cloud’s arms to pull them back for the exit. “We’re getting out of this literal shithole.”

Zack heads up the ladder first, and Tifa follows close on his heels. Cloud kicks away one of the Sahagins as he follows up after them. Sahagins aren’t known for their climbing ability or their desire to leave the sewers, but Tifa knocks the ladder down anyways to keep them from coming up after them.

“Can you just smell that smoggy, slum air?” Zack asks, taking in a deep breath. “Never thought I’d be happy to smell it, but it sure beats the sewers.”

“You said it,” Cloud says.

They all freeze at the sound of a helicopter over head.

“Just on patrol,” Cloud says after a moment of silence.

“Yeah, sure,” Zack says, watching the helicopter distrustfully.

“Don’t worry,” Aerith says to Tifa. “We’ll get there in time.”

“There’s just the train graveyard to get through first,” Tifa says, moving towards the first abandoned train that marked the beginning of the yard from the sewer exit.

“How big is that?” Zack asks.

“Not that big, but it might be a little difficult crossing with all the trains,” she says as she climbs the ladder up to the roof of the first train.

The others follow her up.

“Oh shit,” Zack says, looking over the graveyard.

“Sector 7 should be just past that large maintenance facility over there,” Tifa says, pointing toward the large, mostly empty building.

“I’m going to slow you down,” Zack says, shaking his head. “I planned just for bringing Cloud to Sector 7 to check in with Avalanche, not for running around Wall Market and in the sewers and this graveyard all night.”

No one says anything for a moment, and Tifa isn’t sure what to do. She can see Cloud standing next to Zack with that familiar stubborn look of his. If Zack stays, they lose Cloud, too. Tifa doesn’t expect Aerith to come with her and leave her two friends behind so she’d have to go alone. The graveyard isn’t supposed to be home to as many monsters as the scrap yard, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any danger in attempting to cross it.

“I don’t think splitting up is a good idea,” Aerith says cautiously. “Not in a place like this.”

Zack then looks away from the far off maintenance side to look to Tifa. She’s going to have to be the one to decide.

“Would resting for a bit help?” she asks, wondering how much time they can spare if they’ve already seen a Shinra helicopter.

Zack nods. “Yeah.”

“Okay, we’ll find someplace to rest. Let’s just keep to the light so we can see where we’re going,” she climbs down the other side of the train to try and find someplace for him to sit. She could probably use a moment to rest herself.

“It’s…kinda creepy,” Aerith says when she gets down from the ladder.

“People don’t come around here often,” Tifa explains. “There are some monsters, but it’s mostly because of the stories.”

“What kind?” she asks as Cloud makes his way down the ladder.

“Everyone seems to think that this train graveyard is haunted. ‘Those who lose their way out there in the dark of night will never, ever find their way back home again.’”

“Is that right?” Cloud asks with Zack stepping down from the ladder to join him at his side.

“I mean, it’s not like I think it’s true or anything, but you know, it’s just…”

“Great, we’re going to try and relax in the spooky ghost playground,” Zack says.

“You believe in ghosts?” Tifa asks him. The atmosphere of the graveyard creeped her out more than the stories.

Zack shrugs. “I wouldn’t be surprised at this point, real ghosts, fake ghosts, monsters that look like ghosts.”

Tifa stares at him for a moment. Zack had seemed like such an energetic rookie back in Nibelheim, and five years later, he sounds like he’s seen a lot of shit. She doesn’t know what happened to him in that time anymore than she has any idea of what happened to Cloud.

“Let’s just find somewhere to sit,” Cloud says.

The first train car they go through only has broken seats. The second doesn’t even have any seats.

“I’m just sitting here,” Zack announces before setting aside his sword and sitting down on the floor of the train car’s doorway with his feet down on the gravel of the yard.

“Okay,” Cloud agrees, setting aside his sword as well.

Tifa looks around for somewhere for her and Aerith to sit.

“This is so pathetic,” Zack says. “Can’t even go a full night just running around, not even fighting.”

“It’s okay,” Cloud says, and Tifa turns back to see Cloud squatting down in front of Zack and holding both of his hands. “You’re recovering.”

Zack drops his head for a moment, but when he looks up he wears a hint of a smile. “Yeah, I am.”

Cloud wears the softest expression Tifa has ever seen from him, maybe from anyone, and it feels kind of rude to look at it so she returns to looking for a place to sit.

“How’s here?” Aerith asks as she sits down in another train car’s open doorway. It’s not exactly directly across from where Zack’s sitting, but it’s close enough and there’s no debris on the floor.

“Good, thanks,” Tifa says, taking the offered spot next to her in the doorway.

When she looks up, Cloud is moving to sit beside Zack. He rests his head on Zack’s shoulder and Zack rests his head on Cloud’s.

“That is so weird,” Tifa can’t stop herself from saying.

“What is?” Aerith asks.

“Cloud being like that,” she says, gesturing vaguely towards him and Zack. “I don’t know how long you’ve known Cloud, but I grew up with him. He used to not like anybody, and I mean anybody. I was probably the closest to him aside from his mother, and I didn’t even always think we were friends. Hell, when I met him again here in Midgar, I thought he meant he had a mercenary partner because I just could not believe he’d ever like anyone enough for that.”

Aerith makes a noise of consideration. “I only met Cloud when Zack brought him here. Zack says he used to smile and laugh a lot more, if you’ll believe it.”

Tifa gives her a surprised look before glancing over to Cloud and Zack again. If they’re talking, she can’t hear them, and they look more bone tired than happy. “That I really find hard to believe.”

If Cloud ever smiled in their childhood, she couldn’t remember it which was pretty depressing now that she thinks of it. It didn’t feel so bad if Cloud just had the sort of face that tended towards frowns and a personality to match rather than him being such a thoroughly unhappy child.

“Zack’s not like he used to be either,” Aerith confesses. “I didn’t know him for all that long before he disappeared, but I liked him a lot. I wrote him letters thinking he liked me just as much. I moved on after years of no answers just for him to show up again with Cloud. It was pretty obvious that even if he had liked me as much back then, it hadn’t been anywhere near as serious for him as it was with Cloud.”

“Oh, I didn’t ever like Cloud like that,” she says.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she says, shaking her head. “I meant more something like you understand people better the second time you meet them, later in life, when you’re both older.”

Tifa looks back to Cloud again, how comfortable he looks pressed against Zack’s side when years ago the only physical contact he ever had with anyone was through ugly fistfights. “Yeah, I can agree with that.”

She sighs, wishing she were in a proper chair so she could lean back for a bit. She swears she hadn’t felt this tired before she sat down. Maybe the hour was finally getting to her.

Gunshots sound off in the distance, and she jumps to her feet.

“We need to go,” she says, looking to find everyone else standing and moving to join her.

The gunshots continue and grow louder and more numerous as they get closer to Sector 7. She desperately hopes it’s someone from the neighborhood watch fighting a monster and not anything to do with the plate even while she knows in her guts that’s not true. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then you just don't think about how many times Cloud has to tell Zack it's okay you're recovering (you're alive to recover) whenever he experiences a set back during recovery. Cloud's experienced failures and not being good enough before, but I doubt Zack has much experience because he's so young when he makes SOLDIER and rises in the ranks. This isn't the alternate continuity at the end of the remake where Zack's just tired and scraped up. This is original continuity where he took multiple gunshot woulds to the chest and lost a lot of blood and probably had plenty of other injuries from fighting on top of being exhausted, he just managed to survive it.
> 
> I shifted this scenes more this time because Zack's in a lot more of them. I cut stuff I didn't feel was that important. I also just really enjoy removing video game logic as in Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa can all magically get out of their hair dos and make up just by changing clothes (and Tifa's clothes magically appearing when she didn't bring anything with her). I chose the outfits I did because I felt they worked best for the narrative like the fact that Aerith's dress should be a million gil and Tifa should definitely be trying to hide her gloves on her person which would not work well for two of the dresses. Also heels and corsets are bad for you, especially when fighting, just ask a stunt woman, so they gotta go. Cloud fighting with raccoon make up is also just hilarious. 
> 
> This is it for real for this story though. I don't think there's anything more worthwhile from this AU from Tifa's pov as she's essentially seeing Clack at their most romantic based on what she considers romantic (the whole point of this fic) and there's not anything new she would see through to the end of the game. There's too much she's just not seeing past this point (obviously because she's only seen Zack twice).
> 
> I do kinda want to write about Zack joining Aerith and Cloud in Wall Market in this AU because I have Hot Takes on it. Also kinda want to write about how Zack and Cloud manage to survive and start recovering in this AU. Not sure if they should be a series together or stand alones but that's a problem for if I write them. 
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed!


End file.
